Planning to make a website? Are you thinking of creating a website for your personal or business use but confused how to start? Breathe and realize that you are not alone. This write up will try and lay down the necessary things that you must know how to create a website.
Do It Yourself or Hire a Pro
Yes, we understand that today, money is tight in the Philippines and we all try to save what we can. But remember this, doing it yourself will no doubt save you money, but can it save you time? Not to mention save money long term? There’s no denying that free hosting, free website templates, and free websites are all over the internet, but that’s just it. It’s all over. Meaning, there’s a big chance that your website can be a duplicate of another business using the same free website builder. Most of these free website builders do not have adjustments for SEO. Your website can be poorly ranked in Google. You don’t want that to happen to your business. What about advanced funtions like Google maps, interactive forms, online shopping? Most free websites still offer these functions with a fee. That’s why, it is still a better choice to hire someone to do it for you. Web designers and web developers can advice you on the proper design and technology to use for your website. They can even help you secure your website and work the way you need it to.
Who Do You Need to Hire
Great, you decided to go and hire someone to help you with your website. But who and where can you find them? Most of the time three people need to work on a website.
Web Designer
This person creates visuals for the website such as logos, website pages, images and buttons. His role is mainly related to styling and layout of pages using your content, both text and images. This will also include the navigation, slides or banners. This is the Photoshop guy. You will start your website project with this person. You will need to tell him how your business needs to look.
Web Developer
Wikipedia defines a web developer
“A web developer is a programmer who specializes in, or is specifically engaged in, the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over HTTP from a web server to a web browser.”
Nosebleed. In short, these guys make your website run and perform the way you want it to. They are responsible for the more technical stuff in your website. For example you need a newsletter function in your site, this person will make it happen. They know what technology is necessary for your website.
SEO Person
Search Engine Optimization is the process of boosting the visibility of a website in a search engine result page (SERP). Whether it’s from Google, Bing, or Yahoo, hiring the right SEO person is critical because he will be the one responsible for potential customers to find your website. But Google advises that
Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site.
Steps in Website Building
After hiring the right people to do the job for you, there are steps in order for your website development to be successful. These steps are just basic guides on how to make a website. A more complex website will require more planning and stages.
1. INFO GATHERING
Your website designer developer gathers all the necessary information needed in customising your website. What domain name to use, what colors are needed, will you be needing movies and images and more. Goals will be set so you need to tell the team the functions you require, the look you wish to see and how you expect to benefit from the site.
2. DESIGN
Based on the information gathered, the web designer drafts the design for your site. Normally he creates 2 to 3 drafts for you to choose. This usually consists of the homepage and 1 to 2 inside pages. Adjustments can be made before finalizing the actual web design. You need to make certain that this is the look you are after. Making adjustments to the look of the website during development stage is quite troublesome. So as much as possible plan everything during the design stage.
3. DEVELOPMENT
The web developer will now start developing the actual functioning website based on the information gathered in step 1. He will be responsible in converting the web designer’s draft into a code that the internet browser can understand. It is imperative that all the design needed for the website is finished before doing the developing.
4. TESTING
Your website can now be tested. Make sure that all the functions needed and discussed during the info gathering stage has been implemented.
5. INTERNET MARKETING
SEO optimization should be done in this stage. This is the stage wherein you will need to setup social media pages, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ in order to help make your new website visible to potenetial customers. Other SEO techniques can be done by the SEO person.
That’s it. I hope that clears things on how to make a website easily for your business. After taking careful steps in planning your website, your business can take advantage of this awesome marketing tool. Good luck!
